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SaaS Information Security Checklist

SaaS Information Security Checklist. Protect Your Product and User Data

July 30, 2018
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8 min read

Security issues in cloud computing have become critical with the growing demand for SaaS services. It isn't difficult to prove that SaaS startups are popular and profitable. Such famous applications, as Jira, Slack, Trello, Dropbox and Google Drive belong to this group. What are the reasons for the success of SaaS technology?

What are the reasons for the success of SaaS technology?

The thing is that it is convenient, helps to save user money and reduce their efforts. The SaaS vendor takes all responsibilities of the application's support:

  • An organization of hosts and data center
  • Development and updates
  • Operating system and management
  • Resources of network, servers, storage

As for the specific advantages of the <medium>SaaS industry<medium>, we can define 5 the most important of them:

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All the mentioned benefits of SaaS make it a very flexible and attractive solution. But they also cause its vulnerability from the point of view of operational security. SaaS environment can be useful both for private and corporate needs. Many users turn to cloud-based services for personal purposes. At the same time, businesses, establishments, and organizations install SaaS solutions. It helps simplify the realization of their everyday tasks. Both types of users show a high interest for an appropriate level of their data protection. Having no control over the hardware that handles their information, users want to get a 100% guarantee of its security. Actually, "Security is the No. 1 reason preventing firms from moving to SaaS software."

According to Forrester, outside attacks, human errors, and malicious insiders are the most common causes of data loss. From 2009 to 2014 the number of cybersecurity attacks increased tenfold (from 3.4 to 42.8 million per year). In 2017 the cost of the data breach amounted to $3.62 million, while the cost per stolen record lowered to $141. Breach detection and mitigation expenses are the least of the SaaS business owners' worries. In fact, indirect damages make up a large part of the losses. Reputational hits promote increased client turnover and higher customer acquisition cost. Most companies cannot handle these problems.

SaaS

What SaaS threats you can face due to the lack of cloud computing security?

Usually, enterprises have to solve from 20 to 30 such problems per month. The main security threats for the SaaS cloud delivery model on the public cloud are:

  • Inappropriate sharing causes loss of information
  • Insider SaaS security risks of getting damage to sensitive data
  • Compromised accounts of the company's employees
  • Usage of shadow IT products, especially mobile apps

To prevent catastrophic losses to your project, we offer a short SaaS security checklist. It will help you look at potential vulnerabilities from the first day of development to the successful launch and beyond.

Secure SaaS application: how does it look like?

Before starting work with any cloud application, many users examine its security principles. What aspects are of vital importance for them?

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Market leaders like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, provide full information about the protection of their cloud services. We prepared several tips on achieving excellent web security at all stages of SaaS development.

SaaS security

SaaS security best practices during development

Building a secure application from the ground up is always easier and cheaper than dealing with data breaches. Every IT company has a set of SaaS security controls, protocols, and procedures. Nobody wants to fix the issues after the received damage. But, as a founder, you should encourage your partners to follow the SaaS security best practices:

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Ongoing SaaS security efforts

Information security measures shouldn't stop after the product's deploy and launch. Once users start interacting with your SaaS app, the number of security risks of cloud computing increases. Thus, ongoing security efforts are necessary to protect the project. At Freshcode, we recommend these breach-preventative methods that complement each other:

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User-side measures to achieve best cloud security

No matter how tight you make the security of your SaaS product, users can become a liability. We have some ideas on preventing data leaks and showcasing your information security policies to users. You can try these methods:

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Thinking that nobody needs your or your customers' private details is a great misconception. It causes loss-making hackers' attacks. Neglect of SaaS issues and solutions can cause great damage to your company. That's why maintaining information protection in cloud computing is a complicated task. It's necessary to treat it with the utmost care from the development stage to well after launch. Ongoing security measures can protect your company from massive losses. So, use our checklist to ensure your SaaS company is safe on all fronts.

SaaS security checklist

We have overlooked all of the main SaaS benefits and risks. Now, you can see that this technology is worth your attention. If you have pressing questions about SaaS security audit, you can contact FreshCode team. We will help you improve your project's defenses or develop the product with impenetrable software as a service security. Let's talk about the realization of your SaaS ideas!

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